RESEARCH ON THE SEMANTICS OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF UKRAINIAN AND ENGLISH

Abstract

This article explores the translation of English phraseological units, paying attention to their specific characteristics. Phraseological units are inseparable language units that denote a specific concept and have a modified meaning. Their important characteristics include the invariance of meaning, structure and grammar, as well as imagery. Translating English phraseological units can be difficult due to their complex semantic structure, figurative nature, and national-cultural specificity of meanings. Phraseological units can be divided into equivalent and non-equivalent ones, with the meanings of the latter depending on the national-cultural context. To translate equivalent phraseological units, full or partial phraseological equivalents or phraseological analogues can be used. The most effective way to translate phraseological units is to use a full phraseological equivalent that fully corresponds to the original phraseological unit in meaning, lexical composition, grammatical structure, and imagery in both languages. In translation, there are partial equivalents that contain some discrepancies with the original phraseological units, and phraseological analogues that have the same meaning and style but differ in imagery from the original. Many English phraseological units are non-equivalent, so they are translated into Ukrainian using calques or descriptions. Descriptive translation allows conveying the general meaning of phraseological units as succinctly and clearly as possible, but does not preserve the figurative meaning.